Author: Aleksandra Vrbica

This training was focused more on presenting and discussing the current situation with the implementation of the state strategy for preventing and countering terrorism, as well as on strengthening local capacities to address issues and concerns in this field. The session was delivered by Labinot Leposhtica, Legal Officer and Monitoring Coordinator at BIRN Kosovo, and a member of the Working Group for the National Strategy for Preventing and Countering Terrorism, together with Milot Sfishta, Senior Officer for Prevention and Reintegration of Radicalized Persons at the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Leposhtica presented the main pillars of the Strategy and emphasized the crucial role of local communities in early risk identification and grassroots initiatives. Milot Sfishta informed participants about recent developments and central-level institutional efforts to address various forms of extremism.

Participants used the training to get equiped with appropriate information about the Strategy and highlighted the urgency for both levels to do more, especially regarding youth involvement and the influence of the online world, including online gaming and online radicalization. They shared personal experiences with well-known cases in Kosovo and demanded that, besides serving the prison time, repatriated terrorist fighters must be included in programs of rehabilitation and thus be under the scope of the state when it comes to their day-to-day activities, and see if state efforts are being effective and serving the reintegration phase, meaning disengagement from radical ideologies.

This training was attended by 10 municipal officials, of whom six were women.

The training was part of the Resilient and Inclusive Community Program funded by Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), through Advocacy Training and Resource Center (ATRC), and implemented by BIRN Kosovo.

This membership of Reporting House in NEMO places the museum within a wider European network, strengthening its role as both a site of remembrance and a contributor to ongoing discussions on history, memory and journalism. Established in 1992, NEMO brings together national museum organisations representing more than 30,000 museums in over 40 countries.

In its announcement, NEMO welcomed Reporting House as a new member, noting the museum’s focus on the 1998–99 war period and its continued relevance 25 years after the end of the conflict. The museum, developed by BIRN Kosovo and the Prishtina Biennale, combines journalism, photography and media artefacts from the 1990s with contemporary artworks addressing the war’s long-term impact.

Gazmend Ejupi, curator of Reporting House, said for Prishtina Insight, the development reflects both recognition of the museum’s work and a new level of responsibility. He added that joining NEMO places Kosovo’s recent history within a broader European context, enabling comparisons with other museum practices and approaches to memory and the past.

In addition to its exhibition programme, Reporting House is also developing as a platform for research and collaboration with students, scholars and doctoral researchers from Kosovo and abroad. Its archives, documentary materials and artistic programming provide a basis for work on topics related to memory, war, resistance and journalism.

Jeta Xharra, executive director of BIRN Kosovo, notes that the NEMO membership creates opportunities to exchange expertise on museum management and audience engagement. She also highlighted practical needs, calling on members of the NEMO network to support the museum with equipment donations, such as video projectors that may no longer be in use in other European institutions but remain functional and useful in Kosovo.

Since its opening in June 2024, the Reporting House has received more than 20,000 visitors, with a significant share made up of young people attending in school groups despite the museum not being part of the formal curriculum.

The development also underscores the importance of continued support from its donors in sustaining and expanding Reporting House’s work, particularly as it strengthens its international collaborations and long-term educational and cultural programming.

Presented on March 27 in Pristina under the Media Integrity and Disinformation Watch project, supported by the British Embassy in Kosovo, the conference brought together policymakers, media professionals and researchers to confront the scale and complexity of the issue.

At the centre of the event were two reports: Mapping Disinformation: Russian and Serbian Narratives in the Media and Social Networks in Kosovo and The Unstandardized Fight Against Disinformation: A Needs Analysis for Legal and Strategic Changes. Together, their key findings show that disinformation targeting Kosovo is not random, but structured, persistent, and strategically driven.

The Mapping Disinformation report finds that misleading narratives, largely originating from Russian and Serbian sources, are designed to exploit interethnic tensions, fuel insecurity and gradually undermine social cohesion. These narratives circulate across television, online media and platforms like Telegram, increasingly powered by artificial intelligence to scale their reach and adapt across languages. Global crises are routinely repurposed to reinforce false claims, while parts of the local media amplify the problem by republishing questionable sources. The influence landscape is also widening, with actors like China stepping in through Albanian-language content. All of this is compounded by structural weaknesses, limited transparency in media funding, weak editorial controls, and low institutional capacity, creating fertile ground for disinformation to spread.

The legal analysis shows that while Kosovo’s legislation was once aligned with EU standards, it has since fallen behind, particularly in regulating digital platforms and ensuring media accountability. The absence of a national strategy, combined with poor institutional coordination, has resulted in a reactive rather than preventive approach. Public officials and media professionals often lack the tools and clarity needed to respond effectively, while opaque media ownership and weak cooperation with global platforms further delay action against harmful content.

The reports were presented by Kreshnik Gashi, editor-in-chief at Kallxo.com and Visar Prebeza, editor at Krypomerti who emphasized the cyclical nature of disinformation. Gashi noted that much of the content reaching Kosovo audiences originates from Russian state-linked media, only to be republished or adapted locally. Prebeza added that the Kremlin maintains a steady interest in daily developments in Kosovo, consistently reframing them through a disinformation lens.

Labinot Leposhtica, Head of the Legal Office and Court Monitoring Coordinator at BIRN Kosovo, stressed that transparency in media ownership, financing, and advertising is critical to safeguarding the integrity of public information, warning that without it, accountability remains largely superficial.

Addressing the conference, British Ambassador Jonathan Hargreaves highlighted how disinformation is becoming increasingly difficult to detect, particularly with the rise of AI-generated content. He warned that such narratives deliberately target social cohesion, interethnic relations, trust in elections and the credibility of Kosovo’s still-consolidating institutions, slowly eroding stability through continuous and subtle pressure.

Albulena Haxhiu, Speaker of the Kosovo Parliament, said that in today’s fragmented and often unregulated media environment, disinformation is no longer accidental but carefully planned and strategically distributed across multiple channels, frequently without clear authorship or accountability. In such conditions, she noted, institutional responses remain scattered, uncoordinated, and ultimately insufficient.

This conference gathered representatives from Kosovo’s parliament, legal officers, representatives from security and justice institutions, media and civil society. In total, there were 54 participants, 27 women and 27 men.

Based on interviews, surveys, and institutional data, the report identifies key structural weaknesses: poor communication between central and local authorities, lack of standardized reporting and unified guidelines, delays in establishing functional referral mechanisms, and a serious shortage of psycho-social professionals in schools. Critically, there is also an absence of empirical risk assessments, meaning institutions lack evidence on which communities or groups are most vulnerable to radicalization.

A central finding is that Kosovo’s approach is still largely reactive: focused on arrests, rather than preventive. Municipalities, which should serve as the first line of defense, are often not properly informed or equipped to implement the strategy. The referral mechanism, a key tool for identifying and supporting at-risk individuals, is barely operational, and the education system lacks the capacity to detect early warning signs due to understaffing.

The report also highlights a significant geographical and ethnic divide, noting that Serb-majority municipalities, especially in the north, are largely excluded from national prevention efforts.

Overall, the report concludes that without stronger coordination, better data, increased mental health capacities, and full integration of municipalities into implementation, Kosovo’s shift toward proactive prevention of violent extremism will remain incomplete

The report is accessible online in three languages:
The report in Albanian:https://kallxo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/parandalimi-i-terrorizmit-ne-kosove.pdf

The report in Serbian:  https://kallxo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/sprecavanje-terorizma-na-kosovu.pdf

The report in English: https://kallxo.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/preventing-terrorism-in-kosova.pdf

This report was published as part of the ‘’Resilient and Inclusive Program’’, funded by GCERF, through ATRC, implemented by BIRN Kosovo.